AN: Roses are red,
violets are blue, I don't own Teen Titans, and neither do you!

Chapter
1

Beast Boy was pacing back and forth in his bedroom, his mind racing
as well as his heart. He only had one thing, or rather person, on
his mind. Raven. He had to tell her. Somehow, he had to tell her.
He had to tell her that five years ago an odd feeling of nervousness
and an urge to impress her had suddenly overcome him. He had to tell
her that four years ago he had developed a feeling of affection
towards her. He had to tell her that three years ago that affection
had transformed into a strong adoration. He had to tell her that two
years ago that adoration had finally emerged as a crush. He had to
tell her that one year ago that crush turned into something more.
And he had to tell her that now he had full blown fallen in love with
her. It couldn't be that hard to tell her all of that, right?

"How the hell am I gonna tell her?" he asked himself as he paced,
doing his best to avoid the various piles of clothes and junk that
littered his floor. "I can't just go up to her and tell her I
love her. But how do you even introduce a subject like this?"

He sighed and collapsed onto his bottom bunk. He had decided that
today would be the day for he couldn't handle the longing and pain
he felt when he saw her any longer. It was a nice day, so he knew
she would be in a good mood. But her mood, like the weather, could
change in an instant. And that's what intrigued him the most; her
uniqueness.

"She's so different," he said, staring at the bottom of the bed
above him. "She feels so much and yet shows so little. She has
had such a burden put on her I can't even imagine what it must be
like. And she's so beautiful! She's not Starfire beautiful,
which you can really find in any glamour magazine. She's… got
that natural beauty about her. She glows with a light that only
seems to surround paintings of angels. And she doesn't even
realize it. Oh God, why can't I say all of this in front of her?"

At the other end of the hall in another room another Titan was in her
own state of turmoil. She sat on her bed, trying to meditate, but
failing miserably.

"So much has changed," she said to herself. "A single day
seems to take a month to pass, but the years fly by like minutes.
And how do you retain all of the memories you make in a day for all
of the years to come? What makes some days better than others? Each
breath we take is a miracle and we should, therefore, remember every
breath we take. But we don't. And every day we change. Every day
we grow, we age, we learn more, and we die a little. Our bodies die
a little each day and yet we do not become aware of death until it is
breathing down our neck, even though it has been for years dying."

Raven shook her head and cleared herself of these thoughts.

"Why am I thinking like this?" she asked herself. "I never
think this deep for no reason at all. Something must be coming. I
can feel it. I hate having this sixth… or seventh sense. I have
so many extra senses it's hard to tell what's natural and what
isn't. But, no matter how many senses I have, one thing I know.
Something shall happen today and by the dark feeling I'm getting
within me, it's not going to be something good."

She slid off of her bed and prepared to go out to the common room.
She needed to get out of her dark room, if just for a moment, to
clear and calm her mind. The sunlight would drive these unsettling
feelings out of her long enough for her to suppress them and push
them aside.

She made it to the common room and saw three of her teammates; her
friends. Time had changed them, as it changes everyone who sees it
long enough to miss it when their time ends. They were each older,
their bodies grown and their minds molded to know the ways of the
world. Starfire a beautiful alien woman, Robin a handsome heroic
man, Cyborg a dashingly brilliant man, and… and… Raven noticed
that one teammate was missing from her sight; the one who had changed
the most.

"Hi Raven," said Cyborg looking over his shoulder from the couch.

"Hello," said Raven, addressing everyone in the room so she would
have to speak as little as possible. "Where's Beast Boy?"

"I believe he is in his room," said Starfire.

"Why?" asked Robin.

"Just wondering," said Raven simply. She went over to one of the
large windows and looked out upon the magnificent view. It was mid
afternoon so the sun would not be setting for a few hours. The day
was just in its prime and this was when decision should be made, or
the day would soon pass away and life would have to pause until the
birth of the next day.

The common room doors slide open once more and revealed the last
Titan, making the team whole. He took a look around the room and saw
his friends and his love were there. Just the sight of her made his
heart flutter and his soul burn. She was standing right in front of
one of the windows, looking out over the horizon. Lord, she was
beautiful.

"Hey Beast Boy," said Cyborg.

"Hey guys," said Beast Boy with a smile.

"Raven was looking for you," said Starfire sweetly.

"She was?" he asked, his voice going a little higher than would
have been acceptable as normal. He saw Raven turn around and the two
made eye contact. "You were?"

"I wasn't looking," said Raven. "I was wondering, since you
weren't in here."

"Oh," said Beast Boy, his ears drooping a little.

She saw his ears fall a centimeter or two and turned back towards the
view from the tower. He was so very different from the Beast Boy she
had met all those years ago when he still bore an absurd mask. He
was taller and his body was more defined; a man's body now. His
shoulders were broad and his thin frame was sculpted to fit him just
perfectly. His once round sweet face had become sharp and
exceedingly handsome.

She felt him walk up behind her and she saw his reflection in the
window. His face was turned out towards the view, and yet his eyes
were fixated on her. That was something else that had changed over
the years; his eyes. Not the color or size of the eyes themselves,
but the feelings and emotions he expressed through them.

At first, she had not noticed. But, like all things that change
slowly over time, she suddenly realized the difference one day when
he had made eye contract with her. They were far different than what
his eyes had always been; full of impulsive actions and a spark of
playfulness. Now when she looked into them she saw different eyes.
They seemed… deeper. As if now they held great thoughts and even a
sense of enlightenment, but at the same time vulnerability and
conflict.

"Great view, huh?" he said, breaking into her thoughts.

"Yes, quite lovely," she said, looking at his eyes in the
reflection of the window.

It grew silent between the two of them, but it was a comfortable
silence. Just to be this close to her was like heaven to Beast Boy
and he never wanted to descend back to Earth. And Raven could feel
how comfortable he was and that, in turn, made her feel a little more
comfortable. But, there was something lurking within him that
confused her. He had something nagging him at the back of his mind
and she could feel that he wanted to let it all out.

"Beast Boy?" she said.

"Huh?" he asked, practically jumping at the fact that she had
addressed him.

The two walked out of the common room and stopped in the middle of
the hall. Why, Raven did not know. Beast Boy just couldn't take
another step, the anticipation of the conversation that was about to
come made him feel light headed and a little sick.

"Because… because I need to, um, tell you something," said
Beast Boy, uneasily. "Something… important to me."

"What is it?" asked Raven softly, truly intrigued now.

He took a big breath in and with all of his courage began to speak.
"Well, you see, uh, Raven, I kinda… sorta… lo-"

BEEP BEEP BEEP

The hallway began to flash red lights and the sirens began to sing
their song of trouble. No sooner had the alarm gone off when both of
their communicators began to jingle. They both flipped them open and
saw Robin.

"Come back to the common room," he ordered.

"On our way," said Raven. She looked to Beast Boy who looked as
if he was both furious and relieved all at the same time. "We'll
talk later, okay?"

"Yeah, sure," he said, a bit sadly. And with that the two headed
for the common room to see what was going on.

"It's Johnny Rancid," said Robin. "He's tearing up
downtown."

"I thought they revoked his motorcycle license?" said Cyborg.

"Yeah, but that doesn't stop him from getting on one," said
Robin.

"Quickly, let us go before he does more of the tearing up of the
city," said Starfire.

"Alright, Titans go!" ordered Robin and with that the five headed
off for downtown Jump City.

Johnny Rancid laughed to himself menacingly as he tore through the
streets and on the sidewalks. Innocent citizens were leaping left
and right, just trying to get out of his way. His newest motorcycle
was as dark and evil looking as Johnny Rancid was himself. His beady
eyes keyed in on a young man and he gave chase, just for the shear
fun of seeing someone in pure fear. The young man ran as fast as he
could and Johnny chuckled evilly as he closed in on the poor soul.

Suddenly a blast came from in front of him and he was caused to
screech to a stop. The smoke cleared and he saw the Titans before
him. Robin had thrown a smoke disk and luckily it had startled
Rancid enough to cause him to stop.

"You are under the arrest," said Starfire, flying a little higher
into the air and aiming a green glowing hand at him. "Please, do
not try to resist."

Johnny just smiled wickedly. Before they could do anything he spun
his bike around and took off in the other direction. The Titans
quickly gave chase. They knew what they had to do, get his bike away
from him. If he didn't have his motorcycle he was basically
nothing. Robin jumped on his own motorcycle while Cyborg took the
T-car and Beast Boy and the girls flew as fast as they could to keep
up.

Johnny sped through the streets and made sure to take out anything in
his way, or rather anything he could reach from where he was on his
motorcycle. Newspaper stands, parking meters, street signs, anything
was fair game.

Starfire showered him with starbolts and tried to hit his tires, but
the starbolts only ricocheted off the rubber and would hit something
else. It was obvious that he wasn't like most of the other
villains who didn't learn from their encounters with the Titans.
Johnny Rancid took the knowledge he had learned from each battle and
put it to good use, or rather bad use.

Robin quickly made it up next to him and began to bump Rancid with
his bike. He returned the favor to Robin and nearly ran him off the
road. Cyborg got on the other side of Johnny and together he and
Robin sandwiched the villain between both of their vehicles. Now
they had control and it was time to put their long awaited plan into
action.

"Raven, now!" ordered Robin.

Raven concentrated and suddenly her dark powers manifested into a
black claw, which rose from the pavement and grabbed Rancid's bike.
It suddenly disappeared from under Rancid, causing him to continue
on forward through the air. Beast Boy quickly swooped down and
turned into a pterodactyl, grabbing Rancid by the shoulders before he
could smash into the pavement.

Rancid was stunned for a moment, but then a furry unlike anything the
Titans had ever seen rose up within him. He quickly pulled his way
out of Beast Boy's grasp and fell to the ground. The Titans
quickly surrounded him before he could take off running.

"Okay, Johnny, end of the road," said Robin.

"Where's my bike!" he growled, looking at Raven.

"You mean this?" asked Raven as she drew up a crumpled ball of
metal from the pavement that had once been his beloved bike. He
stared at it in shock.

"You bitch!" screamed Rancid. He draw a pistol from his belt and
before anything could be done, before words could be said, before
they could gasp from shock, he fired.

The shot echoed through the streets, which were now empty of innocent
bystanders. Starfire had let out a screech of shock when the sound
had occurred and they all jumped with shock.

Raven remembered what she had been thinking about that day. About
time and how oddly it plays out. How years pass by quickly and days
take weeks. The entire battle with Johnny Rancid seemed to only take
five minutes, when in reality it had nearly taken forty-five minutes
just for Robin and Cyborg to get up near him. And the bullet that
flew through the air seemed to take hours to reach its destination,
when in reality not even a second could pass.

The shock of pain and the force of the bullet entering her was what
snapped the time back into real time. She felt her knees go weak
beneath her and she folded over to the ground from both shock and
pain.

The sounds around her became muffled and light. She couldn't
understand what Robin was yelling or why Beast Boy was screaming.
She heard more gunshots echo through the air, but these did not
affect her. She saw the sky above her, clouds mildly floating past
making a bright contrast to the blue. A small jet was flying by, so
high it seemed to be only a speck with a small white tail behind it.

She could hear a scuffle and more yelling. The pain was starting to
fade away, as well as the reality around her. She saw Beast Boy come
into her view and he quickly knelt down next to her. He was speaking
nonstop, worry and fear behind his eyes. Not a word could she
understand. His lips were moving and sound was being omitted from
them, but she could not make sense of it. She watched as Beast Boy
tore her leotard open and turned pale as he stared at her chest.

She could feel that she was struggling to breathe and her body was
shaking, but she could not connect her body with her mind. She felt
as if she was within someone else. She couldn't understand why
Beast Boy was putting pressure upon her chest or why he kept turning
his head and screaming.

Slowly
the sky began to fade as did the world surrounding her. Finally all
sound became deaf within her ears. She kept her eyes on Beast Boy,
who had tears streaming down his cheeks as he kept talking to her.
The last things she saw were his glistening green eyes. And then she
succumb to the darkness.

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